There are several prior art structures which include a movable platform for holding the motor controls of a fishing boat in combination with a fisherman's chair which in turn is usually attached to the boat deck in a rotatable manner on a vertical pedestal. These prior art structures are generally relatively heavy and bulky and often mechanically and electrically complex and consequently costly. They further present problems in transportation thereof, not only in the changing of the position of the arrangement from one location on the fishing boat deck to another, but also in the transportation thereof by vehicle if the owner of the fisherman's chair and platform moves the chair and platform from a fishing boat to his home or to another fishing boat. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,500 to Hall shows a fisherman's chair rotatable on a different axis than the axis on which the platform is rotatable, and an electric motor and gear arrangement within the assembly housing to independently operate the chair and the platform. U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,910 to Larson shows a fishing chair and platform requiring a plurality of struts to support the structure upon the deck as well as an arcuate track mounted upon the deck to guide the rotation of the chair and the platform and also to provide additional support for the overall structure. The main supporting post for the chair pedestal is particularly complex, requiring a large number of parts including several concentric tubular parts. U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,321 to Nichols is a somewhat simpler structure but still requires five separate struts to support the platform which itself has no direct support upon the deck. U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,436 to Jones is another combination fisherman's chair and motor control holding platform that is particularly complex electrically in that it requires a helical slip ring type electrical contact for carrying electricity from a battery to the helical slip ring and ultimately to the motor. This helical slip ring is arranged concentrically around the pedestal supporting the chair and appears to be permanently affixed to the fishing boat deck with several wires running underneath the deck, all of which make the overall structure nontransportable from one location to another.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a platform for supporting the boat motor controls (usually packaged as a unit) which is simple in construction, lightweight, and easily transportable from one location to another.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved platform, for carrying the motor controls of the fishing boat, which is attached to the chair pedestal by a main sleeve which fits around the pedestal and an arm attached thereto, and which is supported on casters or the like to enable movement of the platform in an arcuate path on the deck of the fishing boat.
Another object of the invention is to provide means to enable vertical pivoting of the arm joining the platform with respect to the sleeve around the chair pedestal, thereby enabling the platform to move vertically up and down to accommodate unevenness on the boat deck as the platform moves in its arcuate path on the boat deck.
A further object is to provide means for adjusting the effective length of the arm between the platform and the sleeve surrounding the chair pedestal.
Still another object of the invention is to provide sleeve inserts which fit inside the main sleeve to adapt the resultant sleeve arrangement to chair pedestals of different diameters.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide indentations in the platform marking the locations where holes can be drilled to receive bolts for securing to the platform motor controls made by different manufacturers.